The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1887-12-31
SCIENCE AND iNDuSTY.


of Harvard College. report that their
extensive and careful researches tend
to disprove the view that oxygen exists
in any part of the sun.
High scientific attainments seem to
be favorable to longevity. The average
age of the fourteen members of the
Royal Society of London who have died
during the past year was no less than
seventy-fve.-M Y Ledger.
Chicago has over 700 shoe factories,
employing 13,000people. It is only of
late. however. that the Chicago girls
shoes have been made at home since
some Of the factories have enlarged
Detroit Free Press.
"A company has been formed in
Buenos Ayres for working the petroleum
deposit recently discovered near the
city of Mendoza The Argentine Re-
public has hitherto obtained the bulk
of its petroleum from the United States.
Puddle Opinion.
In the woodworking and lumber
industries Of Memphis, Tenn, about $50
men are employed, and these are paid
in wages from 1925, 900 to $3.50. 900.
The value of the business done by
Memphis concerns each year now is
over S3,000,000. The business and the
industries are constantly growing. The
mills in that city are now running night
and day, and most of them employ two
sets of men. The woodworking bust
ness will likely increase twenty-five per
cent within the next twelve months.
The woody melon-shaped fruit of
the sand-box tree of the West Indies is
made into neat box by saving off the
top and scooping out the seeds and is
used in Barbados for holding sand.
When, however, the fruit is allowed to
ripen on the tree, it bursts explosively,
scattering the seeds over the ground.
An experimenting naturalist recently
sought to preserve a specimen of the
fruit by drying carefully, but it ex-
ploded with such violence as to destroy
the box containing it-4rkanSdW
TrGUeler.
During the past few years Japanese
manufacturing industries have made
very considerable progress, and full
advantage has been taken of the limited
liability principle. Foreign residents
in Japan looked upon the movement
with some amount of suspicion, think
ing it might be wanting in stability.
Recent returns, however, have shown
that substantial profits have been
earned. In q miscellaneous list of
thirty-four companies the dividends
vary from four to twenty-six per cent.
for the half year
MIR. G. V. Boys, whose extraordi-
nary success in producing extremely
minute threads of mineral substances
was recorded some time since has con-
tributed paper on the subject to the
Journal of the Physical Society of Lon
don. The mineral fibers which he has
produced are described as being far
finer and more perfect than those
made of spun glass. Light arrows of
straw were attached to beads of melted
mineral and then shot out of power
full cross-bow. Threads of rock crys-
tai obtained in this way were less than
the one hundred thousandth part of an
inch in diameter. Threads of this sub
stance are as strong as steel and pos
sess enormous elasticity. They are
useful in many kinds of delicate scien-
tific apparatus.-N 7. Ledger.
DR.. Dubois has investigated the
light-emitting organs of the cucuyo, or
Pyrophorus n0ctiIucus. They are three
in number-two prothoracic and one
ventral. The prothroracic plates give
u good illumination in front, laterally
and above, and serve when the insect
walks in the dark; when it flies or
swims its fine abdominal lantern is I'M
masked. throwing downward an in
tense light with much greater range.
The insect seems to be guided by it's
own light. If the prothoracic appar-
atuS is quenchcd on one side with y lit
tie black wax the c@cmyo walks in
curve, turning toward the side of the
light. If both sides are quenched it
walks hesitatingly and irregularly,
feeling the ground with its antenne,
opJ coOn ctOOJ p,,bI;, Dnin;o,